The architecture profession is experiencing both a crisis and an opportunity: Will our current actions be life supporting for future generations? As architects using bamboo in our designs, we can be assured they will. Bamboo has a rich history of use in construction. Many current examples of the use of bamboo for construction exist in Asia and South America for homes, bridges, and civic buildings. With more than 1,000 species of bamboo, only about a dozen are good for construction. But bamboo has recently been approved by the International Code Council (ICC) for structural use in the United States and many interesting projects have been completed here.

    Learning objectives:

• Identify bamboo appropriate for construction and compare the designs of effective bamboo connections and details
• Outline a process for gaining building code acceptance for new sustainable materials using bamboo as an example and contrast the International Organization for Standardization’s standard for bamboo with ICC certification
• Compare environmental benefits of bamboo construction with wood, steel, and concrete and appraise the overall importance of such materials decisions by architects in terms of sustainability